Kaali

Kaali, sometimes written Kaáli, is the deity who owns the manioc gardens and, more broadly, the domain of cultivated plants. In the myths of the world's opening he receives the earth from Kuwai and transforms it into ground fit for gardens. His deepest significance is agricultural and sacrificial: to feed his children he casts himself into a great fire, and his body becomes manioc and the other crops, so that the staple manioc bread eaten by the Baniwa is understood to be the flesh of the god. Through him the labor of the garden and the eating of manioc are bound to an act of divine self-giving.

Domains

• agriculture

Powers

• gives cultivated plants through self-sacrifice

Sources

• Kaali is the owner of the manioc gardens who received the earth from Kuwai, made it fit for cultivation, and sacrificed himself in a great fire so that his body became manioc and the other cultivated plants.: Robin M. Wright, The Fruit of Knowledge and the Bodies of the Gods: Religious Meanings of Plants among the Baniwa (Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2009). (secondary); Robin M. Wright, Cosmos, Self, and History in Baniwa Religion (University of Texas Press, 1998). (secondary)